What would be your programme for government? You may assume you have legislative and executive dominance, but are limited by your country's constitution. Mine:

Brexit

Remain in single market, leave the customs union (the Norway model). As such, regain control over fishing and agriculture as well as right to sign trade deals and have lower budget contributions than EU membership. The UK loses the ability to influence EU regulations, but we never got our way in EU policy-making anyway, so in practice the loss in minimal.

Maintain membership of EURATOM and the EIB.

Sign trade deals with non-EU states so as to further cement the UK’s position as the world’s entry point into the EU single market.

In the long run, attempt to come to an agreement with the EU to expedite customs as much as possible while retaining ability to sign trade deals.

Fiscal policy

Budgetary rule: day to day spending is to be balanced, borrowing is restricted to capital investment and spending on areas which increase productivity.

Dedicated NHS tax which is ring fenced from the general pool of taxation, and shows up as a separate tax on payslips.

Abolish national insurance.

Increase standard rate income tax by 1p on the pound.

Increase higher rate income tax by 2p on the pound.

New income tax band: over £80,000, at 45%.

Change additional rate (over £150,000) income tax to 50%.

Maintain current rates of corporation tax.

Increase inheritance tax.

Increase capital gains tax to 2010 levels.

Introduce private vehicle carbon tax (see “transport”).

Cannabis tax (see social issues).

Constitution, Law and Justice

Implement Proportional Representation.

Return to the requirement that the Minister for Justice/Lord Chancellor be a qualified lawyer.

Reverse cuts in legal aid for criminal defence.

Implement new, significant penalties to police/CPS who do not disclose evidence.

Increase the right to anonymity of those who are accused of crimes, until they have been found guilty.

Welfare and Pensions

Completely abolish housing benefit, to be replaced with direct governmental provision of social housing (see below). Housing benefit is a subsidy to private landlords and artificially inflates prices.

Reform disability benefit “fit to work” rules to actually reflect whether someone is fit to work, rather than sending people to work who have no capability to do so.

Keep universal credit system, with a maximum cap on total benefits that can be received.

Energy and Utilities

Go ahead with investment in the experimental Swansea tidal lagoon power station.

Continue current plan to build nuclear power stations to increase base load.

Extend the Contracts for Difference scheme to encourage further investment in wind and solar power, to also include battery stations.

Nationalise water.

Significant investment in roll out of gigabit internet.

Continue with plan to phase out coal power, gas to be used as peak generator.

Transport

Approve Birmingham-Manchester as well as London-Sheffield branches of HS2 as well as HS3. Build all branches simultaneously, not consecutively.

Approve Crossrail 2.

As the entry point to London from HS2, expand Euston station.

Fully electrify all rail and signals systems in the UK.

Introduce new carbon tax which applies to vehicles with petrol/diesel engines. The tax is proportionate to the car’s fuel efficiency, and is discounted by how old the car is (so that new cars are more expensive). This tax will increase year on year, with the aim of making new petrol cars prohibitively expensive to purchase by 2030, and old petrol cars prohibitively expensive to keep by 2040.

Haulage vehicles are to be exempt from this tax, at least initially.

Housing

Introduce a new scheme of easy and accelerated approval for the development of brownfield land, which also bypasses the ability of local interests to impede the development. Qualification for this scheme requires the development to include a certain amount of community spaces, green spaces, and affordable homes, as well as a minimum and maximum population density (aiming at the development of medium rise residential property of 6-10 floors).

Introduce a new “use it or lose it” land tax which taxes those holding land with planning permission who are not actively developing the land.

Introduce a new “use it or lose it” land tax which taxes those holding brownfield land who are not actively developing the land. (Justified on the basis that planning for this land is now extremely easy to get).

Maintain the green belt. The idea is to increase quality, medium density residential areas, not to increase US-style urban sprawl.

Local authorities are to be given budgets to increase Council House construction, and the “Right to Buy” is revoked. These developments must be mixed developments of council housing and commercial property to be sold, to prevent the creation of ghettos, and must meet certain minimum requirements. The idea is for council housing to be of good quality in terms of health, safety, and appearance, but unluxurious so as to not compete with the private property market (lest you create the poverty trap, where remaining in council housing is preferable to not).

General policy: as an island nation, investment in the Navy and Air Force take priority over the Army. The policy is for the Navy and Air Force to be able to credibly defend the UK from all plausible threads, including Russia. The Army, on the other hand, serves two purposes: to deploy as part of a coalition of allies, or to be deployed unilaterally in smaller scale, narrowly defined missions (such as humanitarian crises).

Royal Navy

Order a further 4 Type 45 Destroyers, with the intercooler problem resolved. This would bring the total number to 10, which is 3 fewer than there were Type 42s.

Order a further 2 Astute class attack submarines, to a total of 10.

Increase order for Type 26 Frigates from 8 to 13 (same number as Type 23s).

Require all people to pass an English language test (at a reasonably high level) before they are granted indefinite leave to remain.

Draw up rules which make a clear distinction between genuine refugees and economic migrants and enforce them. The key difference being that a person cannot be considered a refugee solely because their home country is poorer/less safe than the UK in general. Refugees must be fleeing from a specific event which renders their home country more dangerous than normal for them, such as a war.

Maintain the international aid budget but focus it on UK interests such as helping potential refugees before they come to the UK.

What would be your programme for government? You may assume you have legislative and executive dominance, but are limited by your country's constitution.

Click to expand...

Where I'm from if the constitution doesn't like my legislation, well, so much the worse for the constitution.

More seriously, the only change I would do is try fixing the separation of powers in my country by:

1) Change our system to presidential since people don't vote for parties, but their leaders anyway. I would change time between elections from 5 years to 4 years.

2) The Sejm would have 1 member for every 100k citizens, giving it 384 people instead of 460. All would be chosen every 4 years.

3) The Senate would have be more like US Senate, with only 2 senators for every voivodeships (province), giving it only 32 people instead of 100. Half of them, one from each province, would be chosen every 2,5 years for 5 years terms, instead of all of them at the same time when the elections to the Sejm are being held. I want it to be prestigious enough to tempt more individual politics who will not just vote for whatever party says they should. Otherwise the Sejm is enough and the Senate should be removed.

4) I would rebuild Constitutional Tribunal. Judges would be chosen by the President and then confirmed by 60% majority in both houses. There would be 15 judges serving for 15 years, but with only one judge being chosen every year. If the judge served less than 8 years, because they replaced someone or they were one of the first judges whose terms are shorter to set up the system, they could be chosen twice. This system would be much better than letting ruling party to replace over half of the judges within 4 years between elections that basically destroyed the tribunal in my country.

Annex the rebel province of the Cisplatine, formally conquer the economic colony of Paraguay and maybe take Venezuela. We would be doing them a huge favor. Then it would be a case about getting a port to the Pacific and buying from Argentina their Province of Misiónes to create a continuous country. Then... invest 60% of my budget in our crumbling infrastructure, do massive cuts in personnels, change the focus of our taxes from consumer's goods to income and privatize almost everything I could.

Okay, Taure's interests naturally lead him to be quite well versed in politics/economics/etc so my post won't be nearly as impressive, but for what it's worth, here's a typical layman voter's take on Poland. I'll try to structure it somehow.

1. Unfucking the separation of powers:​

- The Constitutional Tribunal (our highest court) consists of 15 judges currently chosen for 9 years terms, but the court has been compromised by partisan reform; I actually like @Celestin's idea of 15 year terms and replacing one judge a year; I can't exactly say how I would set it up, but it would probably involve recommendations from the offices of President and Prime Minister and candidates facing hearings and votes in Parliament; I would make illegal to decline a candidate the Parliament's consideration, this process would have to be completed in a timely manner (we all remember Merrick Garland, no?)

- Increase minimum voting quorum and prohibit secret votes in the middle of the night with no opposition MPs present (this is how the judicial reform was passed in December 2016); Voting on legislation must be in the open, in view of the press core

2. Remind people that it's public service:​

- Term limit of three four-year terms in the Sejm (lower house of Parliament); one MP per district (called powiat in Poland) which would give us 380 MPs

- Term limit of two six-year terms in the Senate (model the Senate on the US system, two Senators per region, which would give us 32, like Celestin said)

- However, a maximum of 3 terms in Parliament; that's anywhere from 12 to 16 years, if you can't get shit done for your constituents in that time, then get the fuck out; I don't want people aiming for lifelong careers in politics

(I'm aware of the argument that if you disincentivize people from running for seats, then those qualified can be discouraged from even trying, leaving only those power hungry to grab all positions, but honestly, I'm not seeing the benefit of allowing career politicians, so let's try something else for a change)

- Term limit of two four-year terms in the executive (this stacks with Parliament term limits because there is no requirement that Cabinet members be MPs, not even the PM)

- Term limit of one five-year term for the President (President doesn't do enough to justify paying them for longer than 5 years to sign things and shake hands, PM and the Cabinet do the real executive work)

- Above are big ticket items, and I don't know enough (to my shame) about local govt structures (something I need to educate myself on) but there would be term limits there too, including city councils, mayors, and Polish equivalent of governors

- Give MPs, and public servants in general substantial salaries to disincentivize bribe-taking (same sentiment as with judges), but prohibit bonuses--this ain't a fucking corporation, you want bonuses, go to the private sector after your term is up

3. Why the fuck not, I have majority:​

- Write a new, better Constitution; the fundamental legal document of the country should be written in language that's understandable to citizens who haven't studied law; the Constitution should outline broad strokes and guarantee universal rights (may be a cop out, but I would again refer to the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights); ESPECIALLY guarantee ironclad free speech (not freedom from the court of public opinion of course, you know what I mean)

- Burn the concordat, burn it with fire

- Toss the ridiculous legislation that says that Jesus is the King of Poland, wtf

- Prohibit religious imagery/iconography/symbolism/rhetoric in public institutions, promote a secular country

- Since I'm fucking with the Church anyway, stop paying priests salaries from public funds, the Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest entities on the planet, they can damn well afford to pay their employees

- Tax shit owned by religions

4. Social issues:​

- gay marriage

- gay adoption

- legalize ALL drugs; yes, EVERYTHING; then tax the shit out of it

- abortion legal up to the moment where medical science says it's viable; past that point you're shit outta luck, you had a few months to make the decision; if neither parent arrives at a definite decision by the cutoff date, the assumption is that they're responsible for the child, unless the child is given up for adoption or abandoned (I wouldn't criminalize this, there are lines I won't cross)

- given the above cutoff point and the facts of biology (there won't be ultimate equality until we have artificial wombs), up until the moment of viability, the father has the right to "abort" (legal and financial separation); if both parents want to abort, they can do that until the viability cutoff; if only the mother wants to abort, she can do so at her discretion up to the cutoff point (for fuck's sake, she has to carry the kid, we have to account for, you know, biology)

5. Other stuff:​

- drastically decrease taxation/insurance costs on small business, up to X number of people (I'm thinking 20, but I don't know enough about this, it's up for discussion); this is motivated by personal experience; tutors have to work in the grey area because if you try to register this and turn tutoring into your business as opposed to suplemental income, ZUS (public insurance agency) will take decidedly too much of your money

- stop kicking the ZUS can down the road (it has to fail at some point, but no one wants to bite the bullet, so every govt just sinks more money into it thoughtlessly)

- give retirees decent retirement; I'm not saying we have to about-face and become Germany, but come on

- remove religion from public schools

- beat religious institutions into submission regarding the use of data they collect about private citizens; actually beat everyone into submission about this, GDPR is coming and the Catholic Church here is like "yeah, nope"; this would also serve to (hopefully) give a more realistic image of religiosity in Poland if people had the guarantee that if they go through the hassle of the apostasy process, they won't be fucking counted as X faith in the census

- eliminate 500+ (it's welfare dependent on the number of children); I'm not saying all welfare programs are bad, I'm saying this one is

- streamline the process of registering a company/corporation, especially for small businesses

- if you look at our tax brackets, it actually doesn't look too bad; 18% up to 85k, above 85k it's 15k (which gives 18% from 85k) plus 32% of whatever's above the 85k, but there's so much other bullshit hidden in the tax code, like the insurance and shit--STREAMLINE; people shouldn't need to hire an accountant if they just work a day job and want to file and pay taxes without a hassle

- this reminds me, fuck off with the excise tax on petrol; petrol is being taxed twice, and there's no need for that; cars are already expensive enough between insurance and maintenance costs

- FUCK. COAL. We can't keep bowing to coal miners because there's a dirty industry and a powerful lobby around them; invest in green energy; commit to a national nuclear energy program to reduce reliance on coal asap

- stop requiring every potential public servant to have a degree in law and/or administration; maybe if we had more engineers in the Department of Transportation, we wouldn't be buying superfast trains that have to go slowly anyway because we don't have the railroads to support superfast trains, Jesus fuck

- some sort of voucher system to give students the option of taking language classes in private schools; students would have the option to attend a typical class if foreign languages are not their thing or whatever, or drop the school-provided class in favor of a course in a private school; incentivise private schools to partner with public institutions

- apply the above to all sorts of things: trades, sorta internships with private businesses; however, college admissions would still be based PRIMARILY on grades, I don't want to promote a culture where you have to have a 10-page CV to get into college because of competition; yes, grades suck and standardized testing sucks, but there needs to be some sort of universal measuring stick

- EDIT: I forgot about the Sunday commerce ban; fuck off, this is a retarded law that was lobbied for by the Catholic Church, which thinks that if stores are closed on Sunday, people will go to church and boost their numbers

I'm sure there's stuff I forgot about, but this is frankly a gigantic post already.

I've copied Taure's post mostly for the structure though I agree with some of the thing he has posted and modified it a little bit.

Fiscal policy

Budgetary rule: day to day spending is to be balanced, borrowing is restricted to national emergencies (i.e. war, disasters) and very large infrastructure projects with clear financial cases behind them. Budget deficits and government borrowing are simply a means for the (generally) older and richer parts of the population to avoid taxes and push the financial burden onto future generations.

Reduce corporate tax ordinarily to zero percent, unless that money is being used in overseas investments for which the tax rate shall be 20%. [Some of you may be looking at this and wondering why I'm giving the rich a free pass, I'm not. Firstly, more than half of the Australian stock market is superannuation (retirement) funds which every Australian who has every worked a job has. Secondly, corporate revenue will still be taxed, if it is issued as dividends. In our system, money issued as dividends receives the corporate tax back and is then taxed as income at the relevant personal tax rate. I'm hoping this will encourage companies to invest in expanding Australian business' instead of issuing dividends or sending the money to off-shore investments that will probably end up in a tax haven.]

Clean up and simplify the tax code, remove all off the tax minimisation loopholes. A 2000 page tax code is essentially one giant example of Cronyism, where companies and the rich with enough money can avoid taxation though lobbying to include convoluted tax escape clauses.

Greatly restrict federal funding of various state projects. At the moment these are clearly being used as pork barrelling where marginal seats receive the most federal funding for projects like roads and train lines in an attempt to bribe people to vote for the party in power. Safe seats see very little of this money. Instead, states will be required to set their own state tax rate to raise funds for their state, GST will be proportionally (based on population) be divvied out to the states and the Federal government will set their own tax rate to raise funds for this that a clearly defined as federal responsibilities. This will obviously complicate my tax plan a little bit but it's nothing compared to the current state of Australian tax law.

Constitution, Law and Justice

Develop of constitutional bill of rights styled on the US Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of speech, separation of church and state, right to a fair trail, right to not have your citizenship revoked without conviction for treason, protection from government discrimination based on race, gender, age (provided a person is an adult) etc, prevent searches (both of homes and of persons) without court approved warrants, allow a person to elect to have a bench trial instead of a jury trial, protect people from internet monitoring with a warrant. There's more I'll think off.

Increase the right to anonymity of those who are accused of crimes, until they have been found guilty.

Block any attempts to given aboriginals special rights and privileges (i.e. above those offered to every other Australian) under the constitution.

Welfare and Pensions

Set retirement age to a fixed upper percentage of the population. I.e. the 20% (or whatever percentage is chosen) oldest to help account for increased life expectancies.

Energy and Utilities

Remove restrictions on nuclear power, regulated it to the same standard as any other hazardous industry. Regulations must have a clear and demonstrable public safety benefit.

Select two nuclear reactor designs (ideally a small ~200MW design and a maybe larger ~1000MW design, personally though I think SMRs are the future so a 50MW and a 250MW design might be better), licence the design instead of the site, and encourage Australia electricity utilities to use these designs to replace their aging coal plants as they retire. Allow them to be built anywhere not right next to a major population centre. There's little reason why they can't be built on the existing coal plant sites.

End all solar and wind subsidies. The experiment has failed, nuclear is the only viable solution to de-carbonising the electricity grid. France has already done it with nuclear power, and did so in the space of only 15 years, at very low cost. Every first world country can do that.

Begin the construction of a high-level nuclear waste dump in South Australia, take nuclear waste from around the world and swindle as much as we can out of them for the service. Bury it deep in the Earth and forget about it.

Transport

End all subsidies for trucks running between locations with rail access. "Without trucks, Australia stops" needs to die. Not only from an environmental perspective and reducing CO2 emissions, but also from the fact trucks kill so many people each year and rack up huge road maintenance bills.

Don't commit to phasing out ICE vehicles until electric or hydrogen vehicles have demonstrated they are suitable for Australian long distance driving. Only going a few hundred kms might work well for Europe but it won't cut it here.

Our train tracks are probably too long to electrify so I would investigate converting trains to hydrogen. The problem with hydrogen is it's bulky, which not much of an issue for trains but is for cars.

Housing

Remove restrictions prohibiting high-rise construction. Not only does it mean clearing more and more land for urban sprawl but it also means ever increase public transport and road construction costs.

Defence

General policy: Australia, as an island nation heavily dependent on foreign trade, the ADF should be orientated towards deterring China and (to a smaller extent) Indonesia and protecting Australia shipping when deterrence fails. This deterrence should be orientated towards being able to cause huge financial damage to both nations through the denial of access to energy and other crucial resources, and through the sinking of valuable trade shipping. Australia providing resources and energy to allied nations in the Pacific during a conflict with China necessitates the ability to conduct long distance anti-submarine and anti-air operations.

Royal Australian Navy:

Cancel plans for 12 conventional Barracuda submarines, replace them with 12 nuclear powered Barracuda submarines. These subs would have the potential to sink huge amounts of Chinese shipping, cutting them off from the money, energy and resources they need to prosecute a war.

Ordinarily remove the RAN from the role of customs protection and customs interdiction. The RAN has spent decades performing this role above else, leading the them possessing a huge number of ship only good for customs work yet they cost as much as regular naval vessels because they have all of the naval bells and whistles. This job would be handed over to Customs and the RAN would only get involved during serious incidents.

Orientate RAN surface assets towards anti-submarine work for protecting shipping in open oceans, anti-air for protecting shipping supplying goods to nations within China's aircraft umbrella, and a convert the two Canberra-class helicopter carriers to be able to launch and land STOL aircraft like the F-35B for the purpose of suppressing Chinese forward airfields in the Pacific and opportunistic anti-shipping work. Buy F-35Bs for these ships.

RAF:

Increase F-35A order.

Match the Boeing P-8 order to the number of aircraft being replaced (17) instead of the 12 aircraft ordered. Investigate ordering more aircraft.

Purchase and maintain an adequate stockpile of anti-shipping cruise missiles.

Army

Develop an anti-shipping and anti-runway intermediate ranged ballistic missile system, possibly with MaRV, with a range of ~2500km for the purpose of denying Chinese shipping to the Indian ocean, and the markets and oil there.

Completely mechanise every unit.

Acquire a SAM system, expand the number of MANPAD systems.

Policing and Security

Increase investment in cyber defence.

Stop requiring ISP to collect and store metadata.

Legalise the possession and use of all drugs, allow the commercial sale of all drugs scientifically proven to be less harmful that tobacco, allow drug users using drugs more harmful than tobacco to purchase drugs from the government with the aim of rehabilitating users. This will gut organised crime.

Allow people to acquire firearms licences for the purpose of self defence, require them to go through the same training requirements as existing armed security guards. Adopt the same or similar firearms licensing model as New Zealand. Legalise pepper spray and tasers.

Education

Split upper high-schooling into three streams; those that want to go to university, those that want to do a trade and the rest. Aim towards teaching students the practical skills they need for those paths.

Increase incentives for men to take up positions in primary education.

As part of the above, pass legislation protecting teachers from unfounded accusations.

Reform maths education. In Asia they teach maths much more quickly and students are at a far higher mathematical level for the same age.

Health

Adopt for the most part a publicly funded, privately operated healthcare system. The existed system is bloated and inefficient.

For non-emergency care, treatment would operate on a reverse bidding process. The patient's ailment would be sent out by the main healthcare system to all of the companies operating the hospitals, their automated computer system would then send back bids to treat the patient. The healthcare system would then select a winner, factoring in the additional cost of transport over long distances plus a weighting factor to avoid long distance treatment except where a very sound financial case can be made for it.

Hospitals would have to meet stringent care standards and would be constantly monitored to check they meet the required standard. I imagine a statistical model accounting for patient survival rates, treatment effectiveness rates, patient happiness etc could be developed to find troublesome areas.

Emergency care would probably remain as is, I can't think of any way to remove the bloat in that public sector without compromising patient safety.

Investigate if our barriers to entry for medical degrees is too high. I have to wonder if importing huge amounts of doctors from India is required and if we could get the same standard of care by making it a little bit easier to get a medical degree. I have wondered if the AMA is deliberately restricting the number of doctors to drive up wages.

Immigration

Allow and encourage migrants with skilled trades and money to immigrate to the nation, with a focus on immigrants from the EU, Canada, the US etc.

Make citizenship harder to get, with a longer permanent residency period.

Retain the visa free travel and permanent residency between Australia and New Zealand.

Draw up rules which make a clear distinction between genuine refugees and economic migrants and enforce them. The key difference being that a person cannot be considered a refugee solely because their home country is poorer/less safe than Australia in general. Refugees must be fleeing from a specific event which renders their home country more dangerous than normal for them, such as a war.

Move illegal migrant processing back to mainland Australia.

Unless the illegal migrant is believed to be potentially dangerous to the community, get them out of refugee centres and working. There are plenty of shitty jobs for them Australians don't want to do they could do (fruit picking for example). They should (if they can) pay their own way.

Introduce a values test for potential permanent residents, focusing on whether the person believes their culture and/or religion gives them the right to ignore Australia law.

Try to discourage insular migrant communities that fester values contrary to Australian values.

Well, I'll take a crack at fixing the US. This should be fun. Also going to gleefully steal ideas that look good, and probably reveal a bit of ignorance in some areas.

Fiscal Policy

* Clean up and simplify the tax code, with a specific aim at closing loopholes.

* While insisting on a balanced budget might not be realistic, aim to at least get the rapid expansion of debt under control. If by some miracle we manage to get another budget surplus, use it to pay down the debt or on some major project, rather than letting everyone immediately try to decide what pet project/pork barrel to spend it on.

* In conjunction with legalizing a decent number of currently illegal drugs, put some heavy excise taxes on them along with bumping up the taxes of alcohol and tobacco. Don't take it to the point where smuggling to avoid taxes becomes a big thing for organized crime, but get as much as we reasonably can. If the higher taxes make some people stop using, I'll call that a win.

* Revise subsidies, tax breaks, and government funding to be less about pork barreling, and more about actually encouraging/protecting industries we want to keep in good shape.

Legal Policy

* As hinted at in Fiscal Policy, legalize any drugs that aren't worse than alcohol and tobacco, with the usual limits on safe consumption (like no driving under the influence). Possibly keep some of the absolute worst stuff banned, depending on exactly how bad it is (I am not an expert on drugs, but I'm the President. I'll hire some).

* Legalize prostitution so long as it's done in a licensed brothel with regular testing, for similar reasons of giving cops less to worry about and denying organized crime a revenue stream (or at least seriously cutting into it).

* Establish a reasonable gun licensing and registration program, requiring someone to pass basic safety, competency, and legal test similar to a driver's license. Then tweak the second amendment to make it crystal clear that there is an irrevocable individual right to own guns for self defense, hunting, hobbyism, or any other reason so long as you have a license and register your guns. Vainly hope this will solve the debate, while bracing for hatred from all sides.

* Reinforce that the US government and its laws are secular and nonreligious, even if the people making it up are believers.

Health

* Bite the bullet and figure out how to take the US single-payer. Every time we try to fix private health care, it adds a bunch of new problems to make up for any that get solved.

Defense/Foreign Policy

* Have a big diplomatic conference with the EU, NATO, and our other major allies. Try to hammer out exactly what our common interests are and what exactly it is we want in the world, and what we need to do get it. With any luck, we can hammer out an agreement for how to consistently work together to achieve common goals.

* With the common vision hammered out, build our military along the lines needed to make that happen and expect our allies to do the same. Keep the focus on force projection capabilities, and continue to push technical innovation and high-quality troops.

* Employ the classic carrot and stick. Nations get trade and foreign aid if they're nice and play by the rules, sanctions if they're dicks. Always keep a hand open to those who want to change their ways, but don't bend over backwards to accommodate anyone who's just taking advantage.

* Try to avoid any more wars and stick to negotiation and humanitarian missions, but don't be afraid of backing down from a direct challenge if one arises and don't hesitate to call out bad behavior.

"Why The Hell Not?" Policy

* Build a giant temple to Athena in Washington DC. Why? Because I'm the President, I do what I want!

* Screw boring suits, I'm wearing something with a bit more flair. Maybe something with a cape? I'm the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, I should stand out in a crowd.

Hypocritical Policy

* Do something about the overly powerful executive branch ... right after I'm done gleefully using all those executive powers to push through my agenda against any possible opposition.

Lots of ideas in here that appeal to me, but like I said, I'm just not knowledgeable enough on certain topics to give my own suggestions. I hope more people will join the discussion here, it would be interesting to see different approaches and perceptions as to what needs fixing and how.

I'd hire Ivanka as an "intern" and shitpost on /r/the_dolan while plagiarising this thread for my agenda. May as well consult a bunch of DLP as my advisors/cabinet.

Probably throw in single-payer healthcare too, and do something about global warming, then throw a bunch of money into space, R&D and ways to bring ass backwards rural America into the 20th century with SCIENCE.

@Chengar Qordath i like all of yours and would vote for ya...except I’d like clarification on two things:

-prostitution: one of the biggest issues here is that many prostitutes are victims of sex trafficking. How would legalizing it effect those who are essentially forced into it?

-secular vs religious: one of the problems here is that people use different definitions. You say secular laws..what does that mean for education? Freedom of speech? Etc.

Your stance is very vague.

Click to expand...

Prostitution:
In theory, legalized and regulated brothels should remove that issue since there would need to be proper employment contracts, health and safety inspections, and whatever other paperwork/oversight is needed. I'm sure someone could try faking the paperwork and keeping the employees too scared to report what's going on, but keeping a couple dozen kidnapping victims under wraps in a facility with legal oversight and regular inspections/tests is a lot harder than doing it in an illegal brothel the cops don't know about (or pretend not to know about).

Of course, we couldn't completely eliminate sex trafficking, if only because there are limits to what could be made legal. Obviously legal prostitution would be limited to adults so it wouldn't stop child trafficking, and there are a few really nasty things done to sex trafficking victims that shouldn't be made legal.

Secularism:
Basically, religion is a private thing that shouldn't influence public policy. People are free to believe whatever they want, as long as they don't want to start enforcing laws based on those beliefs.

No real change to Freedom of Speech or education. Say whatever you want about religion one way or the other, as long as you're not breaking the law by inciting violence or trying to start a riot or something. Public schools are public institutions, and shouldn't do too much with religion outside of covering its role as a social/historical institution. Private schools can do whatever they want with religion, as long as they meet the reasonable standards expected of any educational institution.

This might get a bit complicated on some points depending on the institution and their teachings, but as long as they're not on the lunatic fringe I don't foresee too many issues. As a good general rule, behavior that's completely unacceptable in non-religious contexts isn't okay just because it's a private school. Being a religious school doesn't make "Kill all Jews because of the blood libel" any less bad than "Kill all Jews because the dilute our Aryan genetic purity."

Well I'm by no means anywhere close to being a legal expert for the Philippines (I've read a brief outline of it maybe once), but I'll give this a crack.

Tax Reform (How we're going to pay for everything)

Simplified Tax Code

Lower Taxes on lower and middle class, higher tax on upper class

Implement a Carbon Tax on Cars, Excise Tax on Sweetened Beverages

Implement a Higher Sin Tax on Tobacco and Alcohol

Legalize and Tax Prostitution and Drugs (similar to Chengar's idea). Prohibition is a measure that rarely works, so the only way for a government to exert influence over things like this is through Regulation.

Financial and Government Reform

Implementing strong Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing requirements on local banks. Actually punish officers of banks for lapses/breaches in these measures.

Push for a cashless society. I don't expect this to be easy, but laying groundwork (such as heavily encouraging a reusable contactless stored-value smart card - see Octopus Card in HK. This could be implemented widescale on mass transit services.

Actually give government workers a livable wage. At the same time, introduce the death penalty for corruption. I recognize the potential this could be used as a tool to kill off political rivals, perhaps a stipulation that it can only be issued for cases of excessive corruption (excessive defined and scaled upon the person's government wage).

Make it illegal for convicts to run for government office

Encourage greater and harsher policy debates for candidates of public office.

Education

Increase funding for teachers and sizably increase the amount of teachers in public schools.

Open more public colleges that teach crafts and skills

Encourage use of English and Filipino in schools over regional dialects

Urban Planning

Reinforce Eminent Domain and prevent cases like this from hampering public works

Continue expanding the national highway system

Decongest the Capital by investing into peripheral cities (not just the capital) and setting up industries there

Remove Squatter's Right to Property (currently, they gain a legal ownership over property they squat over if not ejected after x years)

Introduce planning for developing cities including a road network that makes sense rather than allowing it to develop through organized chaos

Utilities and Transportation

Re-Nationalizing sectors of Utility such as Water, Energy, Rail and the Metro

Allowing Foreign Competitors in certain monopolized sectors such as Internet Service Providers and whatever the hell Grab is

Nationalizing all Buses, Jeeps and vehicular mass transit services. A steady salary should shift the incentive structure from maximizing revenue to obeying rules (such as following a schedule and not being a fucking road hazard).

I envision this to require a three-pronged approach. Cutting off any potential funding they can get from ransoms through preventative measures (a sizable increase in ships and patrol boats, greater counter intelligence operations) and a strict no negotiation strategy.

Domestically, cutting off local support by building good will between the Muslim community and the military (soldiers engaging in community outreach has proven to be somewhat effective) and isolating them from other Muslim groups.

Counter Terrorist Financing discussed under Financial Reform.

Recognize Malaysian Sovereignty over Sulu (as an inventive for them to do something for us in return, unsure what atm)

Re-Align the Philippines with more like minded allies in the region (Japan, Korea, Australia/New Zealand) and countries with an incentive to keep China's economic dominance in check (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia)

Switch the prison system from punitive to reformative, especially for minor offenses (teaching crafts and skills, preparing for a life outside of prison, using them as cheap labor)

[11:30 AM] Halt: If I update magnate will you update new game
[8:56 AM] Cell: heh perhaps

"Well, editorial language is what an editor does, what a director would to his actors, what a particularly angry Sey in WbA does: it tells you how to feel." -Blorcyn, 2019

ways to bring ass backwards rural America into the 20th century with SCIENCE.

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That part's actually pretty easy. You just need to pony up the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars required to lay out modern power, utilities, and networking infrastructure out there, then sit back and wait a generation.

All it really takes is reliable, cheap internet access, and the problem will resolve itself.

Legalize and Tax Prostitution and Drugs (similar to Chengar's idea). I live in Seattle where weed is legal. They have made so much money off our extremely high alcohol and drug taxes.

Pay down our damn debt.

Freaking have balanced budgets. You shut down the government, it means time for a new government.

Constitution, Law and Justice

Proportional Representation

Break the Republican and Democratic parties into sub-parties that make more sense. More parties!

Third party redistricting across the country.

Amendment: Remove the Electoral College.

Amendment: Permit Immigrants to Become President

Amendment: Dissolution of Congress if government shutdown happens.

Huge increase of funding for public defenders, police, firefighters, etc.

Cameras for all police officers.

Remove the Death Penalty (it costs more than its worth).

No privately owned prisons.

Mandatory rehab before incarceration for several drug related crimes.

More funding for after a prisoner is released.

Increase the right to anonymity of those who are accused of crimes, until they have been found guilty.

Jobs/Society.

If you work over 40 hours a week, you get overtime. Very few fields (minus teaching, military, etc are exempt). No more yearly salary jobs being required to work 60 hours plus.

8 hours a day includes a 30 minute lunch and 2 15 minute breaks.

At least three weeks PTO.

One week of sick days.

Parental leave: up to six months, split however the parents want. For small businesses, government can help subsidize.

Subsidize childcare.

Encourage working from home and large companies providing busing or shuttles to help transport employees.

Cap on how much a boss can make to its lowest employee.

Increase minimum wage.

Non-paid internships should be illegal.

Government programs to help the community in return for loan forgiveness.

Housing

Require all apartments to have x percentage of their units being low and medium income.

Redesign 'the projects' to something similar to High Point in Seattle. This is a mixed income neighborhood with apartments, townhouses and houses with tons of green spaces, diversity and a little bit for everyone.

Increase density in major cities to lower the price of rent/housing.

More low income senior residences.

Introduce a new “use it or lose it” land tax which taxes those holding land with planning permission who are not actively developing the land.

Tax foreigners who buy housing to invest their money and leave it empty.

Energy and Utilities

We have so much empty land. Freaking use it for power generation.

Nuclear power for major cities.

Subsidizes for solar panels and electric cars.

Phase out coal.

Nationalize water. Fix our crumbling infrastructure: aka Flint.

Harsh regulations on polluting our supplies.

Transport

MAJOR Transportation package.

All major cities will get massive funding to build subway/rail services to connect to the suburbs.

Upgrade airports.

Fully electrify all rail systems.

High Speed rail for East and West coast (densely populated areas).

Defence

Major auditing of the Military budget, and figuring out where exactly money is being wasted.

Somehow remove the military industrial complex.

Increase veteran care as well as mental health for veterans.

Policing and Security

Increase police numbers.

Increase investment in cyber defence.

Abandon and, where necessary, appeal the government’s recent attempts to monitor all internet use en masse, without a warrant, ban encryption, etc.

Legalise cannabis, with regulations and taxes mirroring those that already exist for cigarettes.

Decriminalise consumption of (but not dealing in) other drugs, to be treated as a medical problem rather than a crime.

Education

Increase funding for public universities, to lower tuition.

Limited public money should be used in maintaining big sports (football, basketball, etc).

Universal trade schools and community college.

If possible, implement the Swiss internship program, where students graduate at 16 but are required to go to college or intern with a various company (usually trades) for 2 years.

Programming courses starting in elementary.

No classes designed to pass an end of the year exam.

Required second language.

Required Current Event/ How to be an adult course in Highschool.

As part of the above, pass legislation protecting teachers from unfounded accusations.

Health

Single payer healthcare.

Mental Health Institutions and Rehab centers more common.

Lower subscription prices.

Immigration

Increase refugees.

Allow refugees to go to university.

A less stupid green card system, and fixing the major loopholes within it. It should not take ten years to get a green card when you have already been in the states for that amount of time.

Keep DACA.

Foreign Affairs

Keep the treaty with Iran. Open up relations. They could easily be one of our biggest allies if we treated them civilly.

Stop kissing ass to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Work with the EU and NATO.

Some sort of revised Pacific Trade Deal.

More Foreign Aid money. I am a huge believer in the carrot not the stick. And improving the life for anyone is going to help the entire world. Especially if it limits the rate of children or pollution.

Invest significant money into Afghanistan and Iraq. We helped fuck it up, unless we want it to go right back into shit, we need a long term rebuilding projects similar to Germany and Japan after WWII.

Random Stuff

Planned cities. Let's develop new cities on public land. It is significantly cheaper and easier to build a city with great infrastructure than modifying a massive city. Put a city in KY, WV, SC, Utah, Oregon.

More national parks.

Major regulations on fishing to keep from overfishing our oceans.

Stop subsidizing the beef industry. In fact, move away from beef as a main food source (make it a luxury), and use that land to produce other grains. The beef industry is a HUGE environmental problem and the main reason forests get chopped.

Legalize and Tax Prostitution and Drugs (similar to Chengar's idea). I live in Seattle where weed is legal. They have made so much money off our extremely high alcohol and drug taxes.

Pay down our damn debt.

Freaking have balanced budgets. You shut down the government, it means time for a new government.

Constitution, Law and Justice

Proportional Representation

Break the Republican and Democratic parties into sub-parties that make more sense. More parties!

Third party redistricting across the country.

Amendment: Remove the Electoral College.

Amendment: Permit Immigrants to Become President

Amendment: Dissolution of Congress if government shutdown happens.

Huge increase of funding for public defenders, police, firefighters, etc.

Cameras for all police officers.

Remove the Death Penalty (it costs more than its worth).

No privately owned prisons.

Mandatory rehab before incarceration for several drug related crimes.

More funding for after a prisoner is released.

Increase the right to anonymity of those who are accused of crimes, until they have been found guilty.

Jobs/Society.

If you work over 40 hours a week, you get overtime. Very few fields (minus teaching, military, etc are exempt). No more yearly salary jobs being required to work 60 hours plus.

8 hours a day includes a 30 minute lunch and 2 15 minute breaks.

At least three weeks PTO.

One week of sick days.

Parental leave: up to six months, split however the parents want. For small businesses, government can help subsidize.

Subsidize childcare.

Encourage working from home and large companies providing busing or shuttles to help transport employees.

Cap on how much a boss can make to its lowest employee.

Increase minimum wage.

Non-paid internships should be illegal.

Government programs to help the community in return for loan forgiveness.

Housing

Require all apartments to have x percentage of their units being low and medium income.

Redesign 'the projects' to something similar to High Point in Seattle. This is a mixed income neighborhood with apartments, townhouses and houses with tons of green spaces, diversity and a little bit for everyone.

Increase density in major cities to lower the price of rent/housing.

More low income senior residences.

Introduce a new “use it or lose it” land tax which taxes those holding land with planning permission who are not actively developing the land.

Tax foreigners who buy housing to invest their money and leave it empty.

Energy and Utilities

We have so much empty land. Freaking use it for power generation.

Nuclear power for major cities.

Subsidizes for solar panels and electric cars.

Phase out coal.

Nationalize water. Fix our crumbling infrastructure: aka Flint.

Harsh regulations on polluting our supplies.

Transport

MAJOR Transportation package.

All major cities will get massive funding to build subway/rail services to connect to the suburbs.

Upgrade airports.

Fully electrify all rail systems.

High Speed rail for East and West coast (densely populated areas).

Defence

Major auditing of the Military budget, and figuring out where exactly money is being wasted.

Somehow remove the military industrial complex.

Increase veteran care as well as mental health for veterans.

Policing and Security

Increase police numbers.

Increase investment in cyber defence.

Abandon and, where necessary, appeal the government’s recent attempts to monitor all internet use en masse, without a warrant, ban encryption, etc.

Legalise cannabis, with regulations and taxes mirroring those that already exist for cigarettes.

Decriminalise consumption of (but not dealing in) other drugs, to be treated as a medical problem rather than a crime.

Education

Increase funding for public universities, to lower tuition.

Limited public money should be used in maintaining big sports (football, basketball, etc).

Universal trade schools and community college.

If possible, implement the Swiss internship program, where students graduate at 16 but are required to go to college or intern with a various company (usually trades) for 2 years.

Programming courses starting in elementary.

No classes designed to pass an end of the year exam.

Required second language.

Required Current Event/ How to be an adult course in Highschool.

As part of the above, pass legislation protecting teachers from unfounded accusations.

Health

Single payer healthcare.

Mental Health Institutions and Rehab centers more common.

Lower subscription prices.

Immigration

Increase refugees.

Allow refugees to go to university.

A less stupid green card system, and fixing the major loopholes within it. It should not take ten years to get a green card when you have already been in the states for that amount of time.

Keep DACA.

Foreign Affairs

Keep the treaty with Iran. Open up relations. They could easily be one of our biggest allies if we treated them civilly.

Stop kissing ass to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Work with the EU and NATO.

Some sort of revised Pacific Trade Deal.

More Foreign Aid money. I am a huge believer in the carrot not the stick. And improving the life for anyone is going to help the entire world. Especially if it limits the rate of children or pollution.

Invest significant money into Afghanistan and Iraq. We helped fuck it up, unless we want it to go right back into shit, we need a long term rebuilding projects similar to Germany and Japan after WWII.

Random Stuff

Planned cities. Let's develop new cities on public land. It is significantly cheaper and easier to build a city with great infrastructure than modifying a massive city. Put a city in KY, WV, SC, Utah, Oregon.

More national parks.

Major regulations on fishing to keep from overfishing our oceans.

Stop subsidizing the beef industry. In fact, move away from beef as a main food source (make it a luxury), and use that land to produce other grains. The beef industry is a HUGE environmental problem and the main reason forests get chopped.

Click to expand...

Like a lot of this except for removal of electoral college. So you’re okay with the values of Californians/New Yorkers/Texas/Florida’s deciding the president every year?

The purpose of the electoral college is so that even those groups of voters who don’t have as high a population (farmers for example) have their voices heard.

We are not a direct democracy for a reason.

You know you're something when you can line up Arthellion, DR, and Vlad [RIP] on the same side ~ Nazgus

Like a lot of this except for removal of electoral college. So you’re okay with the values of Californians/New Yorkers/Texas/Florida’s deciding the president every year?

The purpose of the electoral college is so that even those groups of voters who don’t have as high a population (farmers for example) have their voices heard.

We are not a direct democracy for a reason.

Click to expand...

Close but not quite. The electoral college exists so that the states with a smaller population have a viable say in the Presidency. It's got nothing to do with the people, or it shouldn't anyway.

The problem is, we've bastardized the electoral college rather severely from its original form, in the name of giving more voice to "the people". The original form was that the state would determine its electors in whatever manner it deems best, whether that's popular vote, gubernatorial appointment, or legislative selection (the last was the most common, IIRC), and the elector would then go on to vote however they damn well please.

Over the last ~150 years however, starting during Reconstruction, states have been abandoning the electoral college in spirit, if not by the letter, by making the post a rubber stamp that must vote in line with the state's popular vote. It was all part of the USA's shift from a federation of distinct, sovereign states to a significantly tighter, more unified block (a choice the EU is going to have to make in the very near future).

This didn't play well with the electoral college system, however, and led directly into the tangled mess we have now, where something like 60% of the citizenry's vote isn't actually reflected in the results of any given Presidential election.

At minimum, the electoral college needs a severe overhaul, either to bring it back into line with the original structure of the US government, where the average citizen's only interaction with the federal government is voting for their representative to the House and their Senators, with the state legislature they elected handling everything else, or we need to come up with a new system that actually works by the desired parameters.

Like a lot of this except for removal of electoral college. So you’re okay with the values of Californians/New Yorkers/Texas/Florida’s deciding the president every year?

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Yes. Immensely.

One person, one vote. That should be the motto.

Why should a farmer in a small state get more representation than someone living in California, or New York? Or why should a conservative in a liberal state even vote for the Presidency, or vice versa? It's not like their votes even matter. The President is supposed to be the voice of the people. Thus, let each vote actually count, and not these BS Presidencies where we get presidents who don't win the popular vote (which seems to be the only way republicans win nowadays).

The Senate does what you are asking the Presidency to do. With having two senators per state, lesser populated states have a distinct advantage in this branch of the US. It's often the case with the House of Representatives too, though less weighted.

The only people I've ever seen FOR the electoral college are conservatives who realize winning becomes a lot harder when they don't have an unfair advantage. This is the same with redistricting. I'm a firm believer that America would be a hell of a lot more liberal if it was an actual Democracy.

The only people I've ever seen protest the electoral college are conservatives who realize winning becomes a lot harder when they don't have an unfair advantage. This is the same with redistricting. I'm a firm believer that America would be a hell of a lot more liberal if it was an actual Democracy.

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Citation needed.

I get that Trump won the election without winning the popular vote and plenty of people are still salty about that, but election strategy and voter turnout are pretty heavily driven by the fact that the popular vote doesn't matter, only EC votes. You can't change the single most important rule in how elections work and expect the result to still be the same.

As far as redistricting/gerrymandering goes, that's been a bipartisan initiative for almost as long as districts have existed.